The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring the relative difficulty in donning a glove. More particularly, the apparatus provides quantitative data with respect to the donning of gloves typically used in environments such as surgical arenas, examination rooms, emergency medical services, and clean rooms.
During the preparation for surgery, surgeons and nurses will typically scrub, dry, and then, don surgical gloves. On many occasions, the subject's hands may not be completely dry, but damp. This dampness on the hands can impede the donning of the surgical glove and is referred to as damp donning.
Surgical gloves must be form fitting and tight around the hands to be effective. The tight fit and rubbery composition make it difficult to don the gloves without a lubricant. Traditionally, surgical gloves are dusted with a dry powder lubricant such as cornstarch in order to facilitate the glove donning process. However, in surgical settings it is believed that the microscopic starch granules can contaminate the body cavity and exacerbate the formation of adhesions. This is a compelling reason to eliminate the use of powder in surgical gloves by modifying the inside or donning surface of the glove with a liquid or gelatinous lubricant. Such powder free gloves typically do not don as well as powdered gloves. As such, the development of a powder-free glove with excellent donning properties is a high priority for the surgical community.
The overall force, time and energy used to don a glove can be defined as the “donning effort”. The sole purpose of a lubricant is to reduce the overall effort required to don the glove. An extensive amount of research has been performed using both human subjects and various other surfaces in an attempt to understand how coefficient of friction (COF) correlates to glove donning. Due to various factors, the studies conducted have not provided conclusive results. This is partly because there has not been an apparatus capable of accurately measuring the donning characteristics of gloves and how donning ultimately correlates to end-users.
An apparatus capable of generating quantitative data in this area may lead to methods capable of distinguishing donning characteristics between different gloves. Additionally, such data may lead to the development of methods useful for in-process testing during glove production.
Therefore what is needed is an apparatus and method capable of measuring the relative difficulty in donning a glove, including acquiring and quantifying data on the effort associated with donning the glove.